He looks just like his mother ( Jouichiro X Souma )
by weirdfillo
Summary: Souma has had an undying rivalry towards his father, this has been going on for years, so much so that some part of him forgot that he's his dad. But what if one day he is reminded that he is his father, but at the same time, Jouichiro loses the sense that he's his son? What will happen when a boy becomes a son, and a father wants a lover?
1. Chapter 1

" Hey pops... Let's do it now" a familiar young fifteen year old red head exclaimed as he glared at the towering thirty eight year old in front of him. He had a confident smile plastered on his face while the older gentleman could barely even keep an eye open alongside his crossed arms. The man with a deeper shade of red for hair only chuckled as a response to the youngster's sheer determination.

"Well... I guess there isn't helping it when you look like that..." He smirked as he continued with,

"Alright, what do you want this battle to be about? Deliciousness or the other one? " Jouichiro said as he proceeded to stand up from the kotatsu he and his son were sharing to stretch his surprisingly well maintained body.

The other could only grin as if he were already sure of the outcome, he suddenly stood up from where he was seated and then proceeded to expertly rip off the white bandana that was covering his left wrist. He then went on and placed that said bandana onto his forehead and continued by pointing his thumb over his chest while looking at his father's proud stature before spouting out the words " Old man, Get ready to crown me king of this fight because I'll definitely defeat you this time with my Yukihira styled pickled sardines banana surprise!" with that his yellow eyes shone like fresh gold under the moon light as an uncharacteristic glimmer twinkled at the fangs of his exposed teeth.

As if he were the wind Jouichiro proceeded to ignore what his son said and merely stated "Well, just don't cry when you lose to me again" with that he gave off a warm smile then got his favourite apron from the hook that it was hanging from before he proceeded to walk toward their kitchen.

"THAT NEVER HAPPENED! I TOLD YOU I GOT ONION JUICE IN MY EYE THAT TIME!" He could faintly hear the protest his son made from the other room and that only served as a kind of pleasure for him, since he always liked riling up his son whether it was for inspiration or just for his own kicks, either way it was working and he was happy about it.

"Whatever whatever, just get your butt over here or else the time you finish your dish mine will get cold..." He continued to say through close lidded eyes as he ran his fingers through his soft maroon hair and stretched it out before proceeding to tie it.

He could only hear the faint patter of his sons footsteps, before he grabbed a hold of his knife and started with a thought.

'Let's begin.'

With that the slight sizzle of garlic and the sweet aroma of onions filled the air, and with that the food war began.

An hour passed, and it was finally done, the two were finally done cooking and ready to present their dishes to their usually unsuspecting victim. Souma, prepared what he had declared a while ago, which was a pickled sardine that was firstly fermented over the course of its existence then pickled with vinegar then seasoned with fish sauce and then partnered with a mixture of slightly creamed bananas and durian paste. It gave off a putrid smell unlike any other; with its acidic sour smell coming from the pickled sardine accompanied by the sweet and unique smell of the bananas and durian paste. The texture was slimy and creamy all at the same time, there were visible lumps of the mashed bananas still protruding from afar that only served as a benefitting factor to its grossness. Its sight was also not befitting to that for human eyes, for the sight would be enough to send even strong men crying home to their mothers. It had a unique design with the pickled fish cut open from its abdomen up and then in the slit laid the hybrid of banana and durian.

Truly the dish was that to be feared, and yet also marvelled. Sure it was gross, but its grossness was in a way that has some personality to it, as if it was saying that " I'm gross, but I'm a piece of art, because only the sickest of mind can come up with something like me" It said so many vile symphonies in its existence alone, and that well, if Souma hadn't created it for the sole purpose of defeating his dad, he would never entertain such a lewd perversion. He was sick to his stomach, but proud, proud of the monster that would finally take down his greatest rival.

"hmmm? Wow... an impressive display..." Jouichiro could only state as he rubbed the tip of his chin with his thumb and index finger.

He was rather impressed he really hadn't expected that his son would have thought that much out of the box to create such a beautiful beast. If he didnt know any better, he would have been quaking with fear, but of course he knew better so he had nothing to worry about.

'Ding' the timer near the over set off a soft but alarming sound that signified Jouichiro's victory.

"Oh it's done..." the pony tailed man exclaimed with an almost unenthusiastic tone as he timidly walked over at the oven that was by his left.

He then soon opened the oven and like a magic explosion, the room soon filled with a sewer like smell that permeated and coated the room. It was so thick that it felt like Souma had just received a punch from a rotting corpse that wore 3 day old gym socks on his hands for gloves.

"What's with that smell old man? It smells like you just killed someone... wait... you didnt kill anyone right? " he then looked at his father who was now holding what looks like a tray of some kind of entrails.

" shut up... it's my dish of course" the man who loomed over the smaller boy said casually as he started to plate what seemed like death on a plate.

When he was finished plating Souma was taken aback of what he saw, because what he saw was the complete negation of what he smelled. He saw a perfectly baked and sliced roll of what seemed like squid with avocado and what seemed like purple mashed potatoes. In the avocado, there seemed to be some sort of cubed cheese that gleamed inside and in between the seemingly purple mashed potatoes and cheesy avocado was a ideal colored golden meat, and at the top was an unknown red paste.

Now to some people the looks of this dish was good enough to excuse the foul smell that it originally had from the moment Jouichiro took it out of the oven, but Souma knew better than to trust his father when it came to cooking. He knew for a fact that when it came to his dad, anything could happen.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? " Jouichiro said as he now took off his apron and hung it back on the wall, before sitting down to join his son for their battle taste off.

Naturally how it worked was that both of them would make a dish and there would be an outside party to taste it in order to make a clear and non biased judgement, but seeing as it was already eleven in the evening and it was a weekday, they could bet that no one's available. So in special cases like these they would have no choice but taste the others cooking and critique it themselves.

"Okay, I'll go first... seeing as I won the last time" Jouichiro said as he then broke a pair of chopsticks and proceeded to pick a piece of the banana and durian covered fish before he eating the said piece.

"Mazuuuuiii!" was the only thing that Jouichiro could say as he tasted the repulsive monstrous cooking his son made. The flavours didnt go well at all, the sourness of the pickled fish and the sweetness of the now honey induced banana cream and the unique flavour of the durian paste fought in his mouth, like how a snail would fight to the death against a frog and a rabbit. It was utterly terrible.

Hearing those words escape his father's mouth made Souma smile, for his father to actually make a reaction that strong it must have meant that his dish was really that bad.

"Ne, its bad right pops! Hahaha , It's so digusting that I even feel like puking and I made it... hahaha" Souma gave out a chuckle as he almost jumped for joy at the thought of him winning this contest, when he looked down at his own plate and realized the marvellous beauty that was presented to him was that of a trickster and was probably going to take him into a horror induced ride.

Although that was the case, Souma took a deep breath, broke the chopsticks he had prepared and then proceeded to pick up and consume the perfectly sliced squid rolls, and the moment he ate one, he knew he had lost.

Just as Souma thought, what seemed like a perfectly delectable meal turned out to be one from his worst nightmares. Indeed the outer layer was squid, but that wasn't the noxious part, but rather, what was inside and ontop of the wrapper. Firstly the cheese in the avocado was not cheese, but rather small chunks of ginger that gave the strong herbal smell and spice to the dish. The once was thought to be purple mashed potato was indeed squash that was soaked with squid ink. The perfectly golden meat in the middle wasn't any ordinary meat, but rather pickled baked pigs feet, and the kicker, the red paste that topped the beautifully set rolls, congealed pork blood softened with olive oil.

Souma was in a state of paralysis, never had he tasted anything so cruel and soul crushing as this dish. It talked of too many takes of woe and it was presented as a innocent child. It was too ruthless of a flavour and sight, it was like tasting the kiss of a mermaid, that also happened to be your grandma. It had no mercy to its taster, it subdued them to a point of complete submission, cruel, pitiless, unrelenting submission.

"...M...M..Ma-...Ma..zu..i..." Was the last thing Souma said as he then soon collapsed to the ground.

When Souma finally came through, he wasn't surprised that he was back at their shared futon with what seemed like a damp rag over at his head.

"Oh you're finally awake..." His father exclaimed as he glanced as he son. "Here.. " He continued as he placed down the cup that seemed to have green tea in it.

Souma of course took the gesture and immediately sat up to drink the said tea.

"You should really strengthen your gut more if you want to defeat me in a grossness contest" Jouichiro stated as he sat down next to his beloved son.

Souma only nodded as he looked up at his father with awe and an unfamiliar softness in his eyes. It was his first time fainting over the foulness of his dads food, but it's been a long while since he ever felt like a son to his dad again, since they don't really communicate much outside of cooking and the restaurant and his dad usually treats him as an employee.

"oh and..." The longhaired man said as looked at his sons eyes, matching the softness it had with his own "Once you're feeling up to it, Go clean your dishes, they're gonna stain if you dont..."


	2. Chapter 2

_"_ _Well, I guess it's your 482_ _nd_ _loss for you Souma... Geez, at this rate, I might just be forced to take it easy on you if you still don't beat me."_

A few days had passed since their last battle and his father's taunting words rang through Souma's head like an annoying cats wail in the middle of the night and one that was incessant and seemingly everlasting. It rang through his head like a bad dream, so much so that he thought that he really needed to step up his game if he was ever going to even come close to beating his dad. He couldn't just play it safe anymore with his dishes, no, he had to play by his father's grounds and think outside of the box some more. He needed to be more creative, more colourful. He needed to beat his dad with food that had its own soul filled apatite and had its own personality. No longer welcome are those mediocre ideas, he needed something big.

What he really needed was another recipe though, something that would really strip his father's soul naked and expose it for him to laugh at. He needed something to crush the humble dignity that his dad had. He needed a recipe, he needed another battle. He needed another battle in order to try and prove his worth once again to the man that taught him everything he knew in the world of food. He needed to show his being bare to his rival and prove to him that he was the better cook. He needed another battle but not just any ordinary battle, he needed something extravagant to really blow his father's top off, something lewd, something bold, something so outrageous, something ... something...

"Ah! I got it!" Souma exclaimed as he finally thought of something that made him really smile his usual shit eating grin for the first time in three days.

 _"_ _No way he can beat that recipe if I use that kind of ingredient... And if I do that instead of the regular way, Oooooh man! I can't wait to kill dad tonight!"_ Souma loosely thought as his grin could only get wider as he theorized more of his recipe and continued to improve on it in his mind.

He had nothing but high hopes this time and it was enough for him. Enough for him to press on, enough for him to try again, enough for him to go to the grocery store and start picking out his materials after school, enough to start practice cooking again, and enough to challenge is father into an all out war once again. It was enough. So when Jouichiro came home from their personal grocery shopping, and he saw his son eagerly awaiting by the door of their home, he could only smile.

"You sure you want to lose again this early in the week?"

"Heh, I'm not losing this time" Souma smirked as that familiar fire filled determination blazed through his eyes and exuded themselves over to Jouichiro.

Jouichiro could only chuckle at the marveling determination his son exhibited. It was so vibrant and exhilarating that every time Souma displayed that kind of look, he always found himself going back to his younger years when he was still a promising young lad himself, full of life and bursting with ideas, though laid back in most cases now that he thinks more of it. He couldn't help but be transported by those gold shimmering eyes it was an effect that no one else could bring forth, him and one other person.

"Alright then, go get your stuff ready..." Jouichiro stated as he soon took a tie he had been harboring by his wrist and proceeded to tie his long hair, a signal that was commonly known to the younger person.

"I'll be with you in a moment I just have to put down these things" he continued as he proceeded to walk over to the other side of the kitchen and start putting away the food that he had bought for their everyday meals, leaving however the ingredients that he would be using for their food battle.

As he soon finished putting away the food that were of no use to him in the battle, he noticed that his 5 footed competitor was brewing up some interesting ingredients alongside some normal ones over at his side. The lighter haired male started unpacking some normal assortments of vegetables and meats alongside some kind of packets of adobo sauce, different arrays of bell peppers, some jalapeño peppers, a pack of chilli powder, some sour cream, a bottle of what looks like water, green onions, a block of cheddar cheese and two cans of kidney beans. It was an unusual line up of ingredients for the younger male, it wasn't like him to stray far from the Yukihira style cooking, he must have been really thinking this through, but never the less it was an interesting sight to observe for the older one. He hadn't expected anything of the sort, and not to mention the short intermission that his son allowed for his recovery from his recent loss to a battle, but then again, Souma never fails to surprise him with his unshakable optimism.

Truly his optimism was something to be awed at, if there was anything he was envious of his son, he would probably say that it was his ability to keep on moving forward and continue honing his skills despite the multiple failures he's faced. It was really what Jouichiro could call a special skill, for not everyone had that kind of unbreakable spirit in them, even he didnt have such skill, it was only Souma.

"Oi, pops stop staring at my ingredients and start cooking, at this rate you're gonna have noting on the plate the time I'm done.. well actually that would mean I win right? Nevermind... forget what I said and continue on hahaha" Souma lightly joked towards his father, which caused Jouichiro to snap out of his slowly deepening trans and gaining a cooly collected smirk before retaliating with a confident

"Don't worry about me, I'll have enough time to win this battle even with just five minutes"

"We'll see about that old man" Souma said with an equal serving of confidence as finished washing his green onion and then proceeded to slice and dice it on the readily available chopping board.

Having snapped out of his daze Jouichiro soon started his own preparations, taking out every bits and pieces of his materials before he started slicing and dicing his meat and vegetables. He was fairly confident of his cooking so to him it didn't really pose a threat that Souma got an upper hand with the time, it didn't really concern him seeing his son starting to boil certain vegetables such as potatoes and carrots, but what did catch his attention was the ingredient he used to boil said vegetables it seemed like water in a bottle at first glance, but after a few moment of thinking it through Jouichiro came to a conclusion that it simply wasn't it, after all Souma knew better than to buy a bottle of water when there was an open access to clean stored water in their pantry. This only led the older man to believe that what the white clear liquid was nothing but sake, which in some part wasn't wrong of him to guess.

All was well and normal in their food battle, that is up until the young male suddenly started to bang pans down into their stove and with it came a soft melodic hum of some sort of song.

"UmarekawaruUUUU ima koko deEEEeee  
AoideitaAaA sora koete iku  
Nigirishimeta tenohira no sono naka ni  
Kibou ga attandaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA~!"

Now, Jouchiro knew his son to be a decent cook, he was talented, innovative and creative , he was a good son, a good friend and a good pupil, but never, in his entire life did he imagine he would be the worst singer Jouichiro would have had to be forced to listen to.

"OI! Souma! Stop with the singing, I mean I know you have a good dish, but you haven't won yet! There isn't reason to celebrate" Jouichiro said as he methodically and also hastily started chopping some garlic into tiny little cubes. He awaited for his sons reply to his snarky words, but when he found no response but a continuance of the sound of his sons loud horrible singing and the terrible pan acoustic that accompanied it, he kind of lost it and suddenly placed his knife down and turned to look at his son, who seemed happily in his own world of musically ineptness.

"Oi, Souma, I told you to cut it out with the-" Jouichiro said as he grabbed the shoulder of his significantly shorter son and turned him around so that they would face each other.

Much to his surprise as soon as their eyes met, Jouichiro saw a pair of half lidded golden eyes, a pair of red cheeks, an expression that he couldn't make out, and a strong stench of alcohol drenching his nostrils.

"OH! Hhhey DAddd! You came to check on me hoooouh!? We'll you Won't get to whin thiz time!" Souma said in a zealous tone of voice as he could only grin at his father who was now intently and worriedly looking at him.

"Souma! what-"Before he could finish his statement of inquiry towards the now drunk young boy, he happened to glance over at the opened bottle of what he thought was sake that was sitting near the flame of the stove. He immediately lets go of his slurring son to attend to the brooding accident waiting to happen that laid on top of the kitchen counter only to quickly take a sniff of what he thought would be a mild almost sweet scent. He expected such fragrance from normal sake but as soon as he took a whiff of the alcoholic substance he was hastily proven wrong when he was swiftly bombarded by the sickeningly musky smell of the alcohol. He then promptly looked at the bottles label only to have his eyes widen when he read out the words:

"Moonshine, White Whisky..120% proof."

Reading these words, and looking at his sons current situation and state of mind, he was no longer surprised to see him reacting in such away. It placed a bit of ease in his mind knowing what his son had ingested, and knowing that it isn't potentially life threatening. Still though, he would have thought that his son would have much of an alcohol tolerance than this. He would have thought that he wouldn't have gotten so drunk with just a measly sip. He thought that way, that is until he saw a completely empty glass of moonshine and a still very much full glass of plain water by the same location near the pot he was just a while ago boiling.

Seeing that sight Jouichiro could only guess that what happened was that Souma placed the glass filled with moonshine in the pot by mistake and then soon wondered why the pot he was boiling wasn't doing what it was told, and of course thinking that something was wrong, and granted that he had been unpacking spices that tampered with his sense of smell, the best option was to taste the liquid that he poured , he then proceeded to drink the rest of the liquid from the glass, only to realize his mistake and soon started correcting it, but like many young boys who haven't gotten the taste of alcohol yet in their mouths, he didn't realize how potent that kind of alcohol is causing him to enter into drunken slurs.

'Bang, Bang, BANG!'

Just as Jouichiro was finishing up speculating what happened to his son and how he got that way, he was suddenly jolted away from his thoughts with the loud banging of plates and pans that emanated from left side of the kitchen. He looked to where the source of the sound was and was not surprised to see his son still pushing through with their battle despite his temporary handicap. He grabbed the bowl from their dishwasher and grabbed the whisk inside the utensils drawer and started messily cracking some eggs into the bowl, dripping some accidentally on the floor. He then continued to carelessly beat the egg with the said whisk only to try to put it on the now boiling pan full of alcohol.

Now, Jouichiro isn't the type to back out of a battle no matter what, but he figured that his incarcerated alcohol drenched son would be an exception this time.

So, Jouichiro, upon the sight of his son, walked over to where he was before slyly turning off each and every one of their used stove, deciding that he would really love to keep his home intact and not burned down into the ground. He then proceeded to keep any of the sharp objects that could potentially harm either of them and kept them over at the top of the cupboard so that his impulsive and intoxicated son couldn't get into them and start slicing off what he thought was meat but rather his own fingers. He then also started picking up any of the breakable dishes that was lying around and started storing them by the sink, thinking that it would be better for them to be submerged under water than to be with his sons state of mind, and finally when all of that was said and done, he placed his attention to his currently still whisking son.

"Souma, I think we should stop the cook off for now..." Jouichiro began as he gently placed his hand by the others shoulder.

"HuH!? N-no! Ica-N BEaT You Pop-s!" Souma said in retaliation as he didn't even turn to look at his father's gaze but instead continued to whisk the imaginary egg that laid on the bowl.

"Souma, You're drunk... we'll have this cook off some other time.." Jouichiro said with a sigh as he desperately tried to convince the other that it was time to quit for the day.

"...No... I'm doing this" Souma replied as his tone got lower and firmer as opposed to the drunken slurs he had been doing.

Jouichiro was taken aback by the others response. This isn't the first time they had to stop a cook-off mid-way because of some sort of emergency, so it wasn't really a big thing, however the younger lad responded towards it was though.

Being answered that way by his son caught Jouichiro off guard and before he could even catch himself doing it, he suddenly stated, "Souma! You're not well! You could get hurt here! We're Stopping the cook off right now!" Jouichiro raised his tone as he gave a stern look at the boy as he took hold his left wrist before forcing him to turn around in order to lock eyes with him.

The boy surely did turn around but his gaze was now fixated at the floor, never at all meeting his father's eyes. There was dead silence between the two of them for a moment, and Jouichiro thought that maybe this time his son finally heard him and listened, but before he could even conclude that thought he suddenly got a response from the younger boy.

"So what if I get hurt?..." there was a paused before Souma could be heard continuing with a " I don't care! As long as I surpass you! As long as you'll recognize me as a chef it doesn't matter that I get hurt!" By this time Souma looked up to his dad, only to give Jouichiro a shock with what he saw on his son's eyes.

"I'll definitely surpass you Dad! Even if I die trying! I'll make you see me and my cooking! I won't stop until I get you to say that my cooking is good enough to inherit the restaurant!" Souma stated as subtle tears ran down his eyes, tears that told of sadness, but also bare, naked determination.

The older gentleman could only look at his sons face, he examined the tears that ran down his surprisingly flawless skin. He stared at his deep dandelion rich eyes, his perfectly bended crimson red cheeks, his cherry colored lips. He looked and gazed in awe at how his son had grown up. His face telling stories that no other person could tell. He stared at it like it was the most exquisite painting that ever lived, like it was the perfect picture that was ever captured. He invested in it, he drowned in it, he sunk to the bottom of his endless captivating glow. He completely subjected, he completely surrendered to the warmth his son was weeping out. He completely lost words, something only one person has ever made him ever do in his life time. He continued to gaze over at the others seemingly ethereal beauty before snapping himself out of it.

"Well if you're that bent on surpassing me then you need to do it in top condition, I won't accept any dish from you made this way, It's considered cheating" Jouichiro said with a mild tone as he finally understood how deep Souma took their rivalry, to him this wasn't a game, to him this was more important than anything, to him this wasn't just some sort of past time, it was his passion and it always pained Souma to think that his dad didn't take it that seriously.

"I promise... we'll have a cook off when you're nice and sober okay?" Jouichiro with a soft smile said as he leaned down a bit in order to fully lock eyes with his now calm son.

Once Souma saw that look of genuine softness in his father's eyes, he could only retaliate with a soft but heartfelt

"okay" and with that he gave the older gentle man one of his famous shit eating grins but this one was softer and milder, as if it was some sort of mild reminder to himself and to his father what kind of person he really was, to which the other responded with a smile.

"Alright, so hurry up and sober up, or else I won't accept your challenges anymore... besides it's not like you won any, Honetsly it's getting kind of boring always winning" Jouichiro lightly teased the still drunk boy before taking a step back and trying to straight stand up.

While Jouichiro was busy chuckling at the light one sided banter he made, he didn't notice the spilled egg on the floor and accidentally stepped on it, resulting to him falling back and taking his son down with him.

The both of them arrived with a loud thud on the ground, the smaller one was on top of the other and the other was down below. Now, in normal situations this wouldn't have cause more than a slight bruising of the buttocks if Jouichiro was unlucky, but somehow, like it was a cruel game faith has bestowed upon them, Jouichiro found Soumas lips on top of his, and his heart racing because of it.


End file.
